


The road to recovery is a long one

by Ozpin_Lover_MP



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-05 23:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16377104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ozpin_Lover_MP/pseuds/Ozpin_Lover_MP
Summary: Before Frisk ever fell underground, Flowey was in control of the timeline. He killed every monster underground multiple times, and Sans remembers all of it. Needless to say, even after all is resolved and well, Sans has a few issues. Mostly nightmares. That's something that Frisk can understand, and even relate to. It's not like she doesn't have her own past demons.This is a short story looking at their recovery. Lots of fluff, hugs, cuddles and angst!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This starts during the pacifist run. It's also Frisk's first (and only) run. 
> 
> Papyrus is 15, Frisk is 16 and Sans is 17 in this fic, but feel free to imagine them older if you want.

…

“I WILL SEE YOU TOMORROW, HUMAN!” Papyrus yelled excitedly. “WHERE DO YOU WANT US TO MEET?” 

Frisk pointed at the inn. 

“WHY? ARE YOU STAYING THERE?” Papyrus asked. 

Frisk nodded. 

“BUT WON’T YOU HAVE TO PAY?” Papyrus exclaimed.

Frisk shrugged.

“NO, NO, NO, THAT WON’T DO AT ALL,” Papyrus continues, “ NO FRIEND OF MINE NEED GO TO AN INN WHILST IN SNOWDIN! YOU CAN STAY IN OUR HOUSE, AND SLEEP ON THE SOFA!” 

Frisk smiled in gratitude. “Thank-you,” she whispered.

“IN FACT, WE CAN HAVE A MOVIE NIGHT, AND WATCH POPCORN AND EAT TELEVISION!” Papyrus rubbed his hands together excitedly. 

Frisk giggled. 

“I MEAN EAT POPCORN AND WATCH TELEVISION!” Papyrus corrected himself. 

Frisk shook her head in bemusement. 

…

“SANS! WHICH MOVIE SHOULD WE WATCH? SUPERMAN OR CAPTAIN AMERICA?” Papyrus waved both of the disks in the air. 

“I don’t care, I’ve seen them all too many times already,” Sans replied, sitting down on the sofa next to you. 

“WE HAVE ONLY WATCHED EACH OF THESE MOVIES ONCE THOUGH!?” Papyrus exclaimed, clearly confused. 

“Why don’t you let Frisk choose?” Sans suggested, popping open the cap of his ketchup bottle. 

Frisk pointed to Captain America, and they settled down to watch it. 

… 

It was the middle of the night when Frisk woke up. She was still on the sofa, squished between Sans and Papyrus. For a few moments, she wondered why she was awake, until she realised that someone was shaking next to her. 

It was Sans. He was curled up tightly, with his arms over his head. Perhaps it was a nightmare? 

Frisk gently shook him. 

With a sharp intake of breath, Sans sat up and opened his eyes. He looked around wildly, pushing himself back into the sofa. 

“It’s ok, it was just a nightmare,” Frisk whispered.

Sans spared her a glance. He hadn’t heard her say more than a word before. 

He took another sharp intake of breath. It wouldn’t do to cry in front of the kid. 

Frisk gently put an arm around his shoulders. “It’s going to be ok,” she whispered. “You’re safe now,” 

Instinctively Sans hugged her. It was only after Frisk had pulled the blanket Papyrus must have covered them with around both of them that Sans remembered that he barely knew this person. Even taking the resets into account, he had only known her for five days. It was nice though, being hugged by someone other than Papyrus.

Speaking (well thinking) of resets, he had a strong suspicion that Frisk had something to do with them. Just before Frisk arrived, they had changed dramatically. Instead of days or months being reset, now it was only an hour or so at a time. And after each reset, or after every few resets, time moved along further than it had done before. This was the farthest along any “timeline” Sans had actually ever been. 

Probably. 

They all seemed to blur together at some point. 

Especially the ones where the vine monster, “Flowey” or whatever he called himself, had been bent on killing all of the monsters.   
Though Sans wasn’t thinking about that. 

He was absolutely not thinking about the way the vines held him in place, with infinite hp, whilst he watched Papyrus get murdered right before his eyes. Just like in his nightmare. Memory, probably. He was absolutely not thinking about it.

Sans shuddered. His breath became shallow. 

No. This couldn’t happen now. He couldn’t panic. Not in front of the kid!

A few more seconds passed. 

He felt like he was paralysed, and like the world was spinning. Which it was, but that wasn’t the point. He shouldn’t be able to see it spinning. Dang it, he was panicking. He couldn’t breath. Man, he hated this. 

“It’s ok,” Frisk’s voice broke through his stupor a bit, “Everything will be alright, I promise,” 

Sans looked up and met her eyes. 

“It was just a nightmare,” Frisk continued, “Come on, take a deep breath,” 

Sans shook his head slightly. “Can’t” he managed hoarsely. 

“Yes you can,” Frisk replied. Gently, she took his hand in hers. “On three. One… two… three-”

Sans tried to take a deep breath. It wasn’t a proper deep breath, but at least it was air. Funny, seeing as he was a skeleton, you really would have thought that he didn’t need air. Magic was weird like that. He felt some of the tension leave him. 

“Again,” Frisk encouraged. 

Sans took another breath. They repeated this until he was breathing normally again. Ok, that was better. He could breath now. Breathing was good. He felt himself sag into Frisk’s arms. 

“You’re safe, no one can hurt you,” Frisk whispered. 

“Thank you,” Sans whispered back. 

They sat there in silence for a few more minutes. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Frisk asked tentatively. 

Sans shook his head. “No, thanks, but I really don’t,”   
“That’s ok,” Frisk replied gently. “Just do whatever helps,”   
… 

The next morning, a very awkward breakfast ensued. Papyrus had left early, wanting to finish resetting all of his puzzles so that he would be free later to see Frisk off when she left for the Waterfall. 

That meant that it was just Sans and Frisk.   
“Look kid, I’m sorry you had to see that, last night,” Sans mumbled. 

“It’s ok, everyone has nightmares sometimes,” Frisk replied quietly. 

They continued eating in awkward silence. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Sans asked. 

Frisk nodded. 

Sans paused for a moment. “Why did the skeleton order a full bodied wine?” 

“I don’t know?” Frisk asked, a smile forming on her face. 

“Because he didn’t have one!” Sans clicked his fingers and made finger guns. 

They both snickered. 

“All you need is a pair of sunglasses to complete the look,” Frisk giggled, shaking her head. “Why wouldn’t the skeleton enter the haunted mansion?” 

Sans grinned at her. He probably knew this one already, but she was going to say it anyway. “I don’t know, why?” 

“Because he didn’t have the guts!” Frisk explained. 

…


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One-shots of when Frisks fights Undyne, and when she beats Flowey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: 1 swear word.

After about the fifth time that Undyne killed her, Frisk decided to pay Sans and Papyrus a visit to see if they had any advice on how to become friends with her. Frisk wouldn’t be able to bare it if she had to kill her. 

Papyrus knew nothing useful, so Frisk went to Sans. 

She knocked on his bedroom door and there was a very loud “crash!”, but no answer. 

Frisk slowly opened the door. 

Sans was sitting on his bed, glaring at the wall opposite, where there was a large stain of... something, that was dripping down the wall. There was broken glass beneath it. 

He looked up. 

“This is your fault. Completely your fault” Sans stated, folding his arms. 

“I’m sorry?” Frisk asked confused. 

“Don’t act all innocent.” Sans stood up. “I know you’re the one resetting the timeline! Do you know how many times I’ve tried to set up this experiment? Five! Five times!,” he was yelling now. 

Frisk felt her arms shake slightly. But it was going to be ok. She could deal with one of her friends yelling at her. It’s not like he was human. She wasn’t going to panic like she did when humans yelled at her. 

“-And every time, just before it’s done, woosh, we’re back an hour, and all of my work has been undone! Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?” Sans continued. 

“You.. you can remember?” Frisk asked, trying to hold back tears. 

There was a moment of stunned silence. 

“Shit,” Sans swore. “I didn’t mean for you to know that.” 

More stunned silence. 

“I’m sorry,” Frisk whispered. Why was she crying? She couldn't be crying. Not because Sans was cross with her. She wasn’t that emotionally unstable. Ok, well, you an argument could be made for that, but it wasn’t the point! She didn’t want to be that emotionally unstable! “I didn’t know,” she continued, “I promise I’ll try and make this time the last one. I’m starting to learn Undyne’s attack pattern now,” 

More silence. 

“Undyne? You’re fighting Undyne?” Sans asked. 

Frisk nodded, trying to wipe her eyes on sleeve, and failing miserably since they were streaming. “I keep dying, which is why the world keeps resetting. I promise I’ll try harder not to die this time though!” 

“Oh kid,” Sans looked at her sadly. 

There was a moment of silence, only interrupted by Frisk’s hiccoughy tears.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realise that it was resetting because of your death. I shouldn’t have yelled,” Sans said gently. 

“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t be so sensitive. I’m sixteen for goodness sake!” Frisk exclaimed. 

Sans raised his eyebrows, “aren’t you a little short for a sixteen year old?” 

“I’m taller than you, pipsqueak!” Frisk replied. 

“Come’er kid,” Sans offered Frisk a hug. 

She dropped down to her knees and hugged Sans. 

“I’m really sorry I yelled at you, Frisk. I didn’t mean to upset you that much,” he whispered into her ear. 

“And I’m sorry the world keeps resetting. I promise that I’ll try harder not to die now that I know how much it affects you.” She whispered back. 

They stayed like that for a few moments, just enjoying being hugged. Since arriving in the underground, Frisk had had more hugs than the last five years of her life put together! It was nice. 

The whole underground was nice in fact. On the whole, monsters seemed very non-judgmental. Sure, they had been told to capture her, but they were all very apologetic (apart from Undyne at least), and none of them made mean comments about her, or tried to hurt her feelings. 

Ironically, even though she was technically in danger down here, she felt more safe than she ever had done in her life. It made her desperate to save her friends. They didn’t deserve to be trapped down here. 

“Thanks kid.” Sans mumbled after a while. “Now, you know that Undyne is part fish, right?” 

Frisk nodded into Sans’ shoulder. 

“Well maybe you should lead her to a place that fish don’t like to go… a hot place maybe?” Sans suggested. 

Frisk pulled away from the hug, wiping her eyes. “A place like, hotland, perhaps?” 

“Bingo.” Sans winked at her. 

…

Frisk opened her eyes. 

She had done it. 

That’s it. Flowey, well Asriel Dreemurr, was dead, and the barrier broken. All of her friends were waking up. 

None of them would remember the battle though. Well, none of them except… Sans! 

Frisk pushed herself up and ran to his side. “You ok?” she whispered, helping him into a sitting position. 

He nodded slowly, despite his eyes being black and pupil-less. 

He took a few shallow breaths, and blinked a couple of times so that his pupils came back. “But if I ever see another potted plant in my life, it will be too soon” he gave her a weak grin. 

She sadly smiled back. “I don’t want to either,” 

“How’s Papyrus?” he asked, changing the subject. 

Frisk looked over her shoulder. Papyrus was already helping the others up. “As lively as always,” she told Sans, pulling him up as she stood. 

“WHAT ON EARTH JUST HAPPENED?” Papyrus exclaimed. 

“Was, was I the only o-one who saw that?” Alphys asked. 

Undyne shook her head. “If you saw a giant plant turn into a rainbow monster then that’s what I saw too,” 

Frisk looked at Sans and raised her eyebrows. Could they all remember the fight after all? 

“Strange, that we should share a momentary vision,” Toriel put in. “Perhaps it has something to do with the barrier breaking?” 

Ah. Momentary. They did not remember the fight then. 

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
